Brown’s oncologist, Dr. Eric Small of the University of California, San Francisco, said the cancer is not extensive and can be treated with “a short course of radiotherapy.”

“The prognosis for Governor Brown is excellent,” Small added in a brief statement released by Brown’s office. He said 78-year-old governor is not expected to experience any significant side effects.

Brown will continue his full work schedule through treatment, which is planned to occur between late February and early March.

The three-term governor was first treated for early stage prostate cancer in January 2012 and stayed on the job throughout his nearly four-week treatment.

In April 2011, he underwent minor surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his nose. He was put under local anesthetic and doctors removed basal cell carcinoma, a common, slow-growing form of skin cancer, from the right side of his nose.

For that cancer, Brown underwent micrographic surgery, in which a doctor can tell even before the wound is closed that all the cancerous cells have been removed.

The governor’s office did not say how the prostate cancer was first detected. Cases are typically found through a PSA blood test or a physical exam.

Brown is the son of former two-term governor Edmund G. Brown and has spent a lifetime in politics, including terms as the secretary of state, attorney general and mayor of Oakland.

He previously was governor from 1975 to 1983, and returned to his former post in 2011 after handily beating former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman.
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